There are many reasons to miss your high school graduation — frustration with authority, weariness from celebrating the end of your high school career, low tolerance for speeches that try to inspire you with hackneyed rock lyrics — but of all those and more, Jordan Spieth may have come up with one of the best.

Spieth, who was scheduled to graduate from Dallas Jesuit Prep on Saturday afternoon, was out playing golf … on the PGA Tour.

Amid names both familiar and unknown atop the HP Byron Nelson Championship leaderboard, none is more surprising or more crowd-pleasing than Spieth, the 17-year-old who’s getting some pretty solid on-the-job training by hanging with the likes of Sergio Garcia and Matt Kuchar.

A local kid with deep knowledge of both the course and the unpredictable weather in the area, Spieth is repeating, and potentially improving on, his performance at the Byron Nelson last year, in which he finished tied for 16th after coming within four strokes on the lead on that tournament’s final day.

This time around, the elements provided a challenge more fearsome than any assistant principal. Spieth conceded that Saturday afternoon was an "extremely hard" day at the office for him, even if he’s just interning at the moment.

"I told my caddy every single hole make sure you’re telling me to stay patient on every shot," he said after the round. "I just needed to be reassured, just trying to settle down and make loose swings and think through each shot. The wind is so hard to sit there and think through where you’re going to hit it and still make the best swing."

He had a few good swings, and a few that didn’t go quite how he’d like; after leading off with two birdies, he wandered through a kaleidoscope of scores, carding three bogeys, three birdies and three double-bogeys. Even finishing the round at +2, he still sits just four strokes back of leader Ryan Palmer, who’s at -5 after posting a +3 round of his own. Winds were brutal, blowing at 25 mph and gusting to 40 mph, and only eight players out of the entire field carded under-par rounds.

The winds are expected to play a role in Sunday’s round, too, meaning that anyone at the top of the leaderboard with the presence of mind to stay low and stay centered has a decent shot of running away with this tournament. And any high schooler who passes up his graduation to go to work has to be in that category.

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There are many reasons to miss your high school graduation — frustration with authority, weariness from celebrating the end of your high school career, low tolerance for speeches that try to inspire you with hackneyed rock lyrics — but of all those and more, Jordan Spieth may have come up with one of the best.

Spieth, who was scheduled to graduate from Dallas Jesuit Prep on Saturday afternoon, was out playing golf … on the PGA Tour.

Amid names both familiar and unknown atop the HP Byron Nelson Championship leaderboard, none is more surprising or more crowd-pleasing than Spieth, the 17-year-old who’s getting some pretty solid on-the-job training by hanging with the likes of Sergio Garcia and Matt Kuchar.

A local kid with deep knowledge of both the course and the unpredictable weather in the area, Spieth is repeating, and potentially improving on, his performance at the Byron Nelson last year, in which he finished tied for 16th after coming within four strokes on the lead on that tournament’s final day.

This time around, the elements provided a challenge more fearsome than any assistant principal. Spieth conceded that Saturday afternoon was an "extremely hard" day at the office for him, even if he’s just interning at the moment.

"I told my caddy every single hole make sure you’re telling me to stay patient on every shot," he said after the round. "I just needed to be reassured, just trying to settle down and make loose swings and think through each shot. The wind is so hard to sit there and think through where you’re going to hit it and still make the best swing."

He had a few good swings, and a few that didn’t go quite how he’d like; after leading off with two birdies, he wandered through a kaleidoscope of scores, carding three bogeys, three birdies and three double-bogeys. Even finishing the round at +2, he still sits just four strokes back of leader Ryan Palmer, who’s at -5 after posting a +3 round of his own. Winds were brutal, blowing at 25 mph and gusting to 40 mph, and only eight players out of the entire field carded under-par rounds.

The winds are expected to play a role in Sunday’s round, too, meaning that anyone at the top of the leaderboard with the presence of mind to stay low and stay centered has a decent shot of running away with this tournament. And any high schooler who passes up his graduation to go to work has to be in that category.

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IRVING, Texas – Moving day at the HP Byron Nelson Championship was more about maintaining than making a charge up the leaderboard. On a day when temperatures at the TPC Four Seasons course topped 104 degrees with the heat index, players had to contend with something even more sinister than the blistering sun.

With the winds kicking up early in the afternoon, groups going off later in the day had to contend with gusts that constantly blew anywhere between 25-39 mph throughout the day, forcing the entire field to be content with par in the third round.

The only problem was there were very few pars on the course to begin with. Of the 75 players left in the field, only 8 managed to break par on the day, with Arjun Atwal posting a 3-under 67 for Saturday’s lowest round.

Aussie Steven Bowditch had one of the more incredible third round swings, as he followed up a 5-under 65 in the second round with an 80, a 15 shot swing that had him shaking his head as he walked off the course.

He wasn’t the only one frustrated with the winds, as the final four groups on the course posted a combined 30-over for the day. For the most part, anything around 2-over on Saturday was considered a decent score.

"It’s tough, it’s just a hard golf course," said Joe Ogilvie. "The wind is blowing 25 to 30 and you’ve got stuff all over the place. … It’s an exceedingly difficult golf course, and we’re pretty good players … but it’s making us look like amateurs."

The bad news for the players is that Sunday’s forecast isn’t supposed to be any better. With temperatures predicted in the mid-90′s and wind gusts expected to be at least 20 mph, there’s a good chance the winner of this year’s tournament could come from a player in an early group that posts a good number and waits things out.

It’s never an easy proposition to win a tournament on the PGA Tour, but with way the wind is blowing at the moment, the winner of the tournament will have to feel extra good about grinding out a win under extremely difficult conditions.

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IRVING, Texas – When 17-year-old Jordan Spieth tees off on the first hole on Saturday afternoon, he’ll do so knowing there’s a good chance his afternoon tee time at the HP Byron Nelson Championship could keep him from missing a memorable moment in his life: his high school graduation.

While his peers at Dallas’ Jesuit College Prep School walk across the stage at 4 p.m. to pick up their diplomas, Spieth will be walking down the back nine of the TPC Four Seasons course, after he posted a 2-under 68 on Friday to stay within shouting distance of the leaders.

If Spieth does indeed miss his graduation, he hopes it’s because he’s answering media questions after another solid round. The way he’s been playing over the last couple of days, there’s a good chance he could find himself back in the media center on Saturday afternoon, before having to make a mad scramble to Southern Methodist University for the graduation ceremony.

Riding a hot putter, Spieth needed only 23 putts to get around the TPC Four Seasons course on Friday, and is currently averaging only 1.5 putts per hole, third best in the field this week.

"The putter has never felt better," Spieth said. "My caddy and I have been hitting the reads all day. My 8- to 10-foot birdies felt so comfortable, just like we had the right reads."

After last year’s incredible T-16 finish, including a flurry of birdies in the final round that got him to within three of the leaders, many wondered what Spieth would do for an encore at the tournament. After two rounds, the encore certainly looks as good, if not better than his 2010 showing.

Armed with confidence, local course knowledge, and the advantage of playing in front of a hometown crowd, Spieth looks like a kid who’s out there having fun, knowing that while he won’t take home a paycheck this week, he has an opportunity to do the unthinkable and take down an entire field of guys that play the game for a living.

"I want to win," Spieth said of his expectations for the weekend. "I don’t care what everyone else says, I look at the leaderboard and see 8-under, Ryan Palmer posted a ridiculous round again today, but I think I can catch [the leaders]."

Normally those words would sound absurd coming from a 17-year-old, but when five of your six competitive rounds at the HP Byron Nelson Championship have been in the 60′s, maybe the thought of seeing Spieth going head-to-head with the pros on Sunday doesn’t seem so crazy after all.

He’s done it once before, and with another round in the 60′s on Saturday, he very well could do it again.

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